A 60-minute interactive wildlife experience built for Android XR will make its debut in competition at Venice Immersive this week, narrated by Margot Robbie.

Galapagos: The Last Eden comes from documentary filmmaker Anthony Geffen’s Atlantic Studios in collaboration with Google. The Venice presentation runs on Xreal Aura glasses, and the project confirmed it will later be released on Google Play for Android XR devices, though no date is set.

Visitors explore the wildlife, oceans and volcanic history of the Galapagos Islands rather than just watching footage. They can also hold a personalized conversation with Charles Darwin, powered by Google’s Gemini Live API, with the naturalist’s replies grounded in research from the production and his animated face driven by OpenXR blendshapes in Unity.

The team captured the islands with Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive dual-8K camera, a RED rig with a dual-lens VR housing for underwater work, and a custom drone for stereoscopic 180-degree aerial shots.

Geffen previously produced VR documentaries with David Attenborough through Atlantic Productions and its immersive arm Alchemy Immersive. Venice Immersive runs September 2-12 as part of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.

Source: UploadVR